Latest NewsBIG MOVE BACK HOME - [Pandemic] Up to a fifth of Australia’s highly skilled Expats have returned home this yearFriday, 06 November 2020

Shane Masters lived offshore for 13 years and had tried twice before to move back to Australia before finally succeeding this year, prompted, in part, by the spread of the coronavirus.

‘‘I’ve got a great gig. I’m happy,’’ says Masters, who manages the South Australian VC Fund, a $50 million venture capital fund backed by the state government.

Masters is one of thousands of Australian professionals who have returned this year, either permanently or temporarily, against the backdrop of COVID-19. Indeed about one in five of Australia’s highly skilled expat community has come home in 2020, according to preliminary findings of a survey by Advance, a platform that connects Australians around the world.

Of those, 19 per cent are looking for a new job, 18 per cent are working remotely for their offshore employer, 15 per cent are building their own business and 10 per cent have transferred to the Australian office of their current employer. Nearly a third have found a new job locally.

Thirty per cent of returned expats are here to stay, 21 per cent intend to leave as soon as the international border opens, and 33 per cent would like to move back offshore at a later date, the survey found. ‘‘Children and ageing parents changes the equation of living overseas. Expats have always thought they were 24 hours away by plane. Now they know they are not,’’ says Yasmin Allen, chairman of Advance and a director of Cochlear, ASX and Santos.

Allen says the stream of highly skilled expats returning to Australia is great for the local economy. When expats are hired into senior roles, they create jobs further down the organisation, they have the skills and experience to help Australian companies expand and they understand Australia culturally.

‘‘A lot of people who go overseas are entrepreneurial. That’s exactly what we want in Australia. They are risk-takers and companies have to take some risks so they can grow,’’ she says.

‘‘And if they are Australian, they understand the culture. So you get the best of their overseas experience and ideas and ways of doing business, and they can bring that back in the Australian context.

‘‘They have a broad knowledge. That is exactly what we want.’’

Allen may well have been talking about Jacyln Lee-Joe, who was the chief marketing officer of streaming giant Netflix, based in Los Angeles, until she found herself in Sydney on a holiday with her family when the shutters came down over the international border. Unlike Masters, Lee-Joe is in the ‘‘looking for a job’’ category, although she is consulting in the meantime.

Despite the skills and experience that many expats and former expats have built during their offshore careers, landing senior roles back home can be far from easy. In a separate survey by Advance, 83 per cent of human resources respondents said they were reluctant or cautious about recommending returning Australians for local roles. About 35 per cent said that recruiting Australians was more trouble than it was worth. Half of returning Australians who had found a new job had done so through a professional or personal connection.

James Low is a director in the customer services hub at Westpac, working on a contract. Low, who has a bachelor of engineering and an MBA, lived in London for 15 years and had heard the horror stories about expats finding it difficult to find jobs in Australia. About two years ago, while he was working at Lloyds Bank, Low started meeting people in the local financial services industry when he was back in Australia on holidays. It was thanks to those contacts that he was offered the contract position at Westpac, which he started in January and where he is responsible for digitising and simplifying the bank’s mortgage broker business.

Low, originally from Perth, says he is looking for a permanent role. ‘‘Relationships are definitely a lot more important here. It seems easier to be tapped on the shoulder if you have a good network, which makes it harder for expats who have been away for an extended period of time. In the larger UK market, it is not as easy for everyone to know each other so it’s actually less about who you know, and jobs are advertised,’’ Low says.

‘‘Recruiters [in Australia] don’t necessarily value the breadth that is gained overseas. That type of experience helps with leadership and judgment, which is really important in a world that is changing.’’ There are also fewer questions from recruiters that relate to an executive’s adaptability and resilience, he adds.

Job difficulties aside, Low is happy and relieved to be back in Australia.

He and his wife had been planning to return before their oldest child started school and came back late last year, before COVID-19 hit. ‘‘I definitely feel sympathy for those that can’t return at the moment,’’ Low says. ‘‘Right now with COVID, we have got to think of ourselves as lucky. Career-wise it does have an impact, but right now just being back is a blessing. With COVID as a backdrop, we are glad we are home with family.’’ The first time Masters tried to return to live in Australia was in 2010, five years after he left. He had been working at global law firm Linklaters in London and Stockholm, and landed a job at Baker & Mackenzie in Sydney. From there, Masters went to RMWilliams Agricultural Holdings, but when that didn’t work out, he headed back offshore to complete an executive MBA.

Masters tried again to return to Australia after his EMBA at French school HEC and armed with experience in California working for AGR Partners, a fund that takes minority stakes in food and agribusiness companies.

‘‘I came and tried to interview for jobs. I didn’t have much of a network or community in Australia. It was great in the US, great in Europe but I was neglecting the fact that you have got to have people here who will be your advocate,’’ Masters says.

So last year he embarked on a five-year plan with the goal of moving back to his home state of South Australia. The idea was to save enough money and expand his network so he could set up a business – while making useful contacts to support his role at French company Unigrains, where he was investing in agribusinesses. One thing led to another, as they say, and earlier this year Masters was offered a position at asset manager Artesian, responsible for the management of the South Australian VC Fund. He was about to be transferred by Unigrains to the US but decided to head south instead.

‘‘I was concerned that COVID would wipe out economies. I thought: ‘There is going to be a massive potential impact. So that is going to potentially put Australia back into recession and then if I want to actually get back in the next three years that could be really, really difficult. So it is either now, or I may never get another opportunity to get a role back in South Australia’,’’ says Masters.

After his departure from the CEO role at ailing department store chain Myer, Richard Umbers joined German discount retailer Kaufland, based in Stuttgart. His role was to support the group’s entry into Australia, but in January, Kauflandabandoned its plans to launch in Australia. Umbers returned to Australia in March and has been living at Redhill on the Mornington Peninsula, south of Melbourne, ever since. ‘‘It wasn’t a bad decision to come back to Australia,’’ he says.

‘‘Necessarily the frame of reference you’ve got now is changing. I can imagine that there are many Australians now who are stranded overseas who, given their circumstances overseas, perhaps they’re even losing their jobs.

‘‘Given the circumstances, they would be very keen to return and so the sooner we do get those open borders and for people be able to move, I think it will be good for Australia, ’’ Umbers says, although he is mindful of opening up in such a way that would trigger more lockdowns.

He is currently a consultant to a major Australian retailer, although he declines to say which one. When restrictions on movement ease, Umbers plans to move to a recently purchased apartment in Melbourne and would eventually like to move back in to executive life. Originally from the UK, Umbers says that while he was in Germany, he remained in touch with Australia.

‘‘I’ve always kept very connected. I consider myself a global Australian and I have wide connections. Particularly in a business like large format retail, it’s very international business. And so I keep track of the markets and all the countries and indeed supply chains up into Asia,’’ Umbers says.

Masters finishes his discussion with AFR BOSS with a piece of advice for Australian companies, which currently face severe obstacles in the form of a closed international border when it comes to expanding in overseas markets. There are thousands of Australians living offshore who could act as a bridge to new markets.

‘‘I think there’s this huge opportunity for Australian companies to connect with expats. Those people who are going to be advocates, or are able to help in this period of not being able to travel and get face to face.

‘‘There’s a lot people out there who I think are willing soldiers for whatever it is you want to sell or buy or grow.’’